MAD MARK'S MICHIGAN 400 MEET REPORT

Dear friends,

Wow! What a great show you folks put on for us at the 1997 Michigan 400.
From novice to elite you all should be proud of your skating this weekend.
Now that you have seen some of the competition you know what you have to 
do this summer.  As meet director, I was most impressed with the quality
of the skating and the good will and sportsmanship.  What a privilege it
is to have you great young (and not so young) skaters at our competition.
Weren't we all fortunate to see so many great skaters show up for our elite
divisions; Our younger skaters were impressed and hopefully inspired.  I'm
still in awe of their ability.
We had a few more casualties than normal but the weather was a factor. 
I've never seen a tougher group of athletes than you inliners!  No crying.
No whining.  Patch you up and send you back out there. I hope those of you
that took falls are taking care of yourselves so you heal properly and are 
back at full speed soon.
I would also like to thank all of your great helpers.  Gerrie, Don, Lee,
Jane, Debra, Ann, Kasey, Jim, Tom, Breanna and folks pulled from the stands
that I can't even remember catching their names.  If you folks don't step 
foward to help out, we don't have much of a meet.  So thanks for saving my
butt for about the sixth year in a row now.
One other big thank you goes to your most loyal and our only sponsor, Wheels
Unlimited.  When we need just a little help a few years ago to jump start 
this great meet, Brian Stinson was the only one to come forward with some 
cash to pay for the portable toilets, insurance, medals, cash awards and
t-shirts.  What we may lack in big name sponsorships that other meets have,
we make up for in class.  I don't foresee us ever attracting the big bucks
and television coverage of other competitions, but I want each of you to go
away knowing you got to skate in a first class meet with spririted racing
in a skater-friendly atmosphere.  That is wat defines the character of the 
Michigan 400.  If you are ever in Grand Rapids on Plainfield Dr., stop in 
at the little skate shop and say thanks to Brian.  He also has a new skate
rink in Big Rapids that you are always welcome to skate at when you are up
north.
If you lost anything at the meet, I have clothes and assorted junk from the
last two years!  Give me a call and I'll see if I have it.
Just because I think this meet was just about as good as it gets, it does 
not mean there isn't room for improvement.  Every year it changes a little.
If we ever turn a profit on this, we will bring in some heavy duty elect-
ronic timing and sound system and more prize money.  There are other small
tweeking things we can do to make it a better meet and we welcome your sug-
gestions.  One thing we will do is to split the men's 5K into a "A" and a
"B" division.  There are too many skaters of too wide an ability level.
This will make for less congestion and allow us to time more skaters.  As
you will note in the results, getting times for large numbers of skaters in
an oval track race is very difficult using stop watches and limited timers.
I am sorry we were not able to give times or placements after about six
skaters.  Anyone know where we can rent or purchase a display digital clock
at a reasonable price should contact me (616-828-4627).  Your suggestions
and constructive criticism is also welcome...really!
How can YOU make this a better race???  First thing off the top of my head 
is to pre-register.  If you don't pre-register you lose out on a great t-
shirt which cost $8.  (it was an awesome shirt was it not?  Thanks to one 
of our club artists Breanna Fellows)  By pre-registering you also save on
us from going nuts at the check in.  Unlike road races where when one more
skater is thrown in it is no big deal, for track racing we sometimes have 
to run heats.  Even without heats, we have to enter your name on at least 
three race cards and the master sheet, collect money and assign numbers.  
Those pre-registered didn't even have to check in.  They just picked up 
their bag with numbers, t-shirt, meal ticket and meet info and they were 
ready to warm up.  I know that for outdoor meets you like to check on the 
weather, but you can PHONE IN YOUR ENTRY even the night before to save us 
time and hassle,  Please keep that in mind.
In closing, thanks again for some great memories.  You folks are terrific.
Don't forget our 10K road race Labor Day weekend August 30...The Shoreline
Spectacular (entrie forms will be posted on this site) along the shore of
Lake Michigan.  Hope to see you there or on the circuit this summer!

Mad Mark--Meet Director

P.S.  If everyone brings a new skating friend next year, we will have twice
      the fun!